Currently, the optical three-dimensional scanning technology is gradually used in a variety of fields such as industry, archaeology, medical treatment, and teaching etc. The triangulation method is the most popular method due to a wide range of applications, high accuracy, and a cost-effective performance. The existing products that use the triangulation principle includes laser distance-measuring sensors, three-dimensional contour sensors, three-coordinate instrument laser probe, handheld laser three-dimensional scanner, handheld projection three-dimensional scanner, fixed projection three-dimensional scanner, etc.
A common method to implement triangulation is to project a single linear pattern by laser or pattern projector. The principle of this method is relatively simple. Given the premise that the location of light planes emitted by the pattern projector and the location of the camera are known, the photosensitive element of camera captures a projection linear pattern on the image. The points on the projection linear pattern are connected to the optical center of the camera. The intersection points of the connection line and the light planes projected by the pattern projector are the desired three-dimensional points on the surface of the scanned object. The triangulation method has the advantages of high scanning accuracy, fast scanning speed, uncomplicated hardware, and high cost performance. Thus, the triangulation method is widely used in the occasions of close-distance contactless scanning. However, generally, the scanner or three-dimensional sensor that uses the triangulation method only project one linear pattern. If a plurality of linear patterns are simultaneously projected, there will be a mismatch of the image, so the effective three-dimensional data cannot be obtained. Therefore, the point-determining speed of the traditional scanner or three-dimensional sensor that uses the triangulation method is greatly restricted, and is not satisfactory for the occasions that require high scanning speed.